News

News by State

House committee holds roundtable on anthrax incident

Members of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and the House Armed Services Committee met Wednesday to discuss updates on the accidental shipment of live anthrax spores to national labs.

The Department of Defense and military officials erroneously sent anthrax spores that were active to numerous facilities that includes national labs and universities. International labs in the U.K. and South Korea are also thought to have received shipments containing live spores.

“Today, the Department of Defense gave an update on its mitigation efforts, as well as the status of the comprehensive review being conducted of DoD laboratory procedures, processes, and protocols. We appreciate the seriousness and urgency that the Department is demonstrating in response to the incidents,"
committee chairman Joe Wilson (R-SC) and ranking member Jim Langevin (D-RI)
said in a statement. “The proliferation and potential use of biological agents remains a grave and enduring threat to the Nation and to our deployed military forces. To deal with those threats, it is critical that the department maintains a robust program to develop biological countermeasures, including vaccines, therapeutics, protective gear and environmental monitoring."